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What is this?

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What is this?

The Genius annotation is the work of the Genius Editorial project. Our editors and contributors collaborate to create the most interesting and informative explanation of any line of text. It’s also a work in progress, so leave a suggestion if this or any annotation is missing something.

This could also refer to the city’s violent defense of the status quo. Building on the opening lines of the song, Kendrick suggests that the ones driving social change (i.e. those in “the driver seat”) earn the enmity of Pirus and Crips alike, leading to an environment that kills progress before it’s begun.

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What is this?

The Genius annotation is the work of the Genius Editorial project. Our editors and contributors collaborate to create the most interesting and informative explanation of any line of text. It’s also a work in progress, so leave a suggestion if this or any annotation is missing something.

What is this?

The Genius annotation is the work of the Genius Editorial project. Our editors and contributors collaborate to create the most interesting and informative explanation of any line of text. It’s also a work in progress, so leave a suggestion if this or any annotation is missing something.

Withdrawals are the negative physical and/or psychological effects of ceasing a drug habit.

If you could see inside Kendrick’s mind (the facades people put up to hide their true selves are often called “walls”), you would see that his mind is currently trying to escape the dangerous environment he is in. While trying to cleanse himself of those influences, they are constantly trying to get back in (hence the withdrawals).

He’s also literally trapped — inside the “walls” of the city plagued by gang violence, and he is recognizing that his actions and the actions of those around him (i.e. gangbanging and drug using) have him already cast as a prisoner on his way to a life toiling in Compton.

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The next line also explains this as getting rich as everybody’s ultimate desire and sometimes a person can leave the right track just to make money and in hood there’s already too much evil. and there are many people who pretend to be friends but you won’t find them in time of need cause they’re known as cowards. kendrick throws light on importance of company infact.

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This also juxtaposes some contrasting imagery, an instrument of killing and a dessert, the latter usually associated with relaxation, the last course of a proper meal. This highlights the brutality of the killings going on in the hoods he describes, at no point are you safe.

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Note the wordplay repetition of ‘channel’. Kendrick is emphasizing that you can’t channel the energy when you know you’re “crooked”. Being crooked isn’t about being poor — it’s about knowing you’re doing wrong. When you’re crooked, you find it hard to have the energy to care about what’s going on, such as feeling bad for the death of innocent bystanders. So you’re not showing up in front of cameras mourning, instead you’re just numb.

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Kendrick explains that this is the way he raps because of his experiences. He’s saying that those listening are the reason why he’s doing what he does. By the time he’s “gone” (be it death or retirement from the rap game), he wonders if everyone will be “singing” (talking about his significance in the rap game) by then? Was he worth it? Did he put enough work to be recognized?

Other methodologies for the explanation include:

Kendrick is asking someone, possibly God, if this song was enough to pay off the sins he’s committed that he talked about earlier in the verse.

He might be realizing that you cannot actually pay off debts (you can’t change the past), but you can change other people’s present moments (if they come to their own insightful revealations) which could, in effect, change their pasts when they get to the future.

In the first verse you have someone that wants their story to be told by Kendrick. In the second verse you have someone that’s upset with Kendrick for telling their sister’s story on Section.80 and doesn’t want him to talk about them anymore. So when he asks whether or not if he’s worth it, he’s asking if he’s worth being wrote about in a song as well. Which basically means that him rapping about them isn’t him trying to be disrespectful. In fact it’s the complete opposite because he’s questioning whether or not if he’s worthy of the same honor. Kendrick must hold writing a song about someone very high, because he hopes that one day someone will do the same to him and tell his story.

This is also a play on the gang life and the process of moving up in the ranks. When you put in enough work and show you’re worth being promoted, you are.

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Kendrick is aware that she blames her lifestyle choices on the lack of effort and support of her parents and loved ones. So he questions anyone who blamed someone else’s actions as an excuse, “Am I worth it? Did I(iii) put enough work in?” So if Kendrick wrote a song about acknowledging her struggle(prostitution)– would she(the prostitutes) ACTUALLY consider that enough to quit?